At the Movies With Peter Travers: ‘Clash of the Titans’ and ‘The Last Song’
Rolling Stone‘s Peter Travers has his Scum Bucket out, ready to scoop up this weekend’s paltry new flicks as two stinkers — yes, Clash of the Titans and The Last Song , are the subject of this installment of At the Movies. Looking to cash in on the 3-D craze, producers quickly transformed the Clash of the Titans remake from a “ridiculously stupid” 2-D movie to a “ridiculously stupid” 3-D movie, turning the 1981 special effects classic into a P.O.S., Travers says.
Starring Avatar‘s Sam Worthington as the warrior Perseus, Ralph Fiennes as Hades and Liam Neeson — in the role originally played by Laurence Olivier — as Zeus, this Clash is a CGI-filled mess and, like Medusa, promises to turn audiences to stone through sheer boredom. Instead, rent the original for special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen’s swan song.
Also this week, Miley Cyrus attempts to break her Hannah Montana mold in the new film The Last Song. Yet another cinematic version of a Nicholas Sparks book, an author Travers calls “wretched,” The Last Song somehow sucks more than the last Sparks’ adaptation Dear John, which is a pretty impressive feat when you consider how bad Dear John was. Travers calls Cyrus in her first dramatic role “irritating” and says she shows no spark or chemistry with her co-star and real-life boyfriend Liam Hemsworth. Cyrus recently announced that after her next album, she’s quitting music to focus on acting. After seeing The Last Song, we’re thinking Miley should rethink her priorities.